Apr 04, 2016 (LBO) - Virtusa Corporation, a global business consulting and IT outsourcing company, announced the ‘Future Architects’ program with the aim of enhancing the skills of their senior consultants and enabling them to make the transition.
The role of a software architect today stretches beyond core technical activities to being a strategic, business oriented consultant, the company said in a statement. .
This role demands the ability to engage with a variety of different stakeholders, gain insight into different systems, manage expectations, solicit the client’s ‘buy in’ to the solution, advocate standards and best practices, and create a competitive edge for the business through innovation and creativity.
“We have always invested in our employees for it is they who help us re-imagine our clients’ future," Thushera Kawdawatta, senior director, technology and chief software architect at Virtusa (NASDAQ GS: VRTU), explained.
"Therefore, programs like this not only help us meet a need in the market, but also give us the opportunity to help these talented individuals grow their skills and meet life goals and aspirations.”
The key opportunity for them is to get involved in hardcore architectural concepts, best practices and standards and carefully evaluate trade-offs in order to provide optimal business solutions. Additionally, this program will develop their ability to convincingly articulate these concepts to the client, he added.
The program will take place over three months and consists of four assignments, two challenges and continuous evaluation and feedback. The assignments consist of simulated client problems based on real world situations, which can be solved in many different ways. This means candidates will need to accurately assess the situation before deciding on the best path that will fit the client’s needs.
Isuru Kottachchi, senior consultant at Virtusa a participant in the Future Architects program said that most engineers lack the opportunity to work on a solution beyond boundaries and usually adapt to a standard solution designed by experts.
"However, in this program we are given the opportunity to think outside of a defined framework and formulate solutions that meet the client’s needs ourselves,”
“We get that extra hands-on experience which gives us greater insight into the role of a software architect.”
The solutions are then presented to a panel of judges who will act as the client. Evaluations of the solutions are followed by feedback of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, both in the solution as well as in the presentation.
“The success factor of this program is the learning process of justifying and selling my solution to the diverse panel of judges,” says Chamika Somasiri, a senior consultant and another participant in the Future Architects program.
“They are thorough in their evaluations and their feedback allows us to not only view our errors, but also to look at the solution from a different perspective. This further expands our thinking,” adds Chamika, who has over five years of experience in .Net technology.
